Hi everyone, A new update has been released, and we have big news to share. Let's go over it all!
First, the changelogs for this update:
Recent Changes
New Features
- Improved distant LOD colors for Autumn trees
- Improved LOD cross fade transition for better graphic quality.
- Changes in missions
- Changes in easy difficulty: now all friendly units are marked on you HUD
- New stalinkas and other soviet structures (you'll see why later in the post!)
- New Panzerbüchse 39 animations
- New TPS hit reaction animations
- New Bofors 40mm Anti-Air vehicle/emplacement
- New Panzer 3 "J" variant
- New Winchester Model 12 "Trench Gun" variant
- Added Tunisia buildings for Map Makers and for upcoming Tunisia Campaign.
- Added many desert camo variations to tons of vehicles!
Fixes
- Improved vehicle collision physic with units.
- Fixed first Kos mission
- Changes in other missions
- Fixes with AI when the turret they drive is out of ammo.
- Fixed wrong daimler ammos.
- Fixes in Sten MKV.
- "Force end match" for multiplayer match admin has been moved to pause menu.
- Many other smaller fixes from user feedbacks.
And now the headliner: the Stalingrad rework.
Stalingrad
Stalingrad have previously been left a bit behind other official maps ever since its release in September 2022, so we wanted to re-make it not only with better performance, but also bring it more up to line with the Easy Red 2 standard in terms of map and mission design. Now, it's featuring at least 14 totally new missions made from the ground up on a whole new map.
The rework will also include fully reworked soviet uniforms.
The original Stalingrad map was wiped totally clean to pave way for this rework-- one where we not only improved performance, but also the visual aesthetic by a multitude of times!
Now, Stalingrad should not only run better and look nicer, but it is also much more accurate in layout to the real deal, with iconic locations like the Fallen Fighters square, the Tram Depot, the Tsaritsa Balka, the Grain Elevator, Pavlov's house, and more! Here's some more preview images:
The Stalingrad rework can be expected to be released hopefully within the next month or so.
Tunisia and the Second Sino-Japanese War
Tunisia production is underway, and you can expect it to release within a couple of months after the Stalingrad rework is out (we'll have a more precise time frame once that is the case). Probably, by the end of this summer! Some locations it will include will be Tunis, Bizerte, Kasserine, Sidi Bou Zid, Faid Pass, and some more!
As for the Second Sino-Japanese War DLC mentioned in previous update posts, it may take at least a few months to get out due to the sheer amount of content that's going to be included with it. We can tell you now at the very least it will include the 5th largest city in the world at the time-- the great Shanghai.
Notice that the assets for the upcoming Stalingrad remake and Tunisia campaign are being added before the release of the campaign, so the Map Makers can already make use of them and can give us feedbacks inside our Discord server.
Console Updates
If you're a console player, we also recently made a bunch of quality of life improvements: improved UI, stability, and a rebindable gamepad to name a few. We're also working with console producers to find a way to get allowed at least a map and mission sharing system, but this may take some time, so please bear with us!
On that note with consoles, we also started working on a Playstation version! December is about the predicted range for when that's in its final stages, though.
New Players
Thank you to the hundreds of new players that came during the recent WW2 sale and gave us tons of feedback and suggestions. It's people like you who keep this game improving, and thanks for coming along! Don't be afraid to join the official Discord server as well to leave even more feedback and suggestions!
Available content
You can get Battle of the Bulge and France Invasion here
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2617770/Easy_Red_2_Ardennes_1940__1944/?beta=0
You can get Normandy campaign here
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2317930/Easy_Red_2_Normandy/
Extra informations
In case you didn't know we have defined a precise roadmap for the next months of development and you can read it here.
We keep improving all features of the base game and as always we will be going on listening to suggestions from people inside the Steam Discussions and the Discord server.
Thank you all,
Marco